a medical librarian's adventures in evidence-based living

HOW TO FIND A POST

HOW TO FIND A POST

If you came to this page from a Google search, click on Edit in the search bar on top of your screen. Then click on Find & type in the KEYWORD you are looking for, like CERTO. You'll get to the exact spot you are searching for.

Brenda Stevens wrote: "The February 20th blog post is really important. I am 53 years old, 5'9"
and went from 210 pounds three years ago to 160 in one year, by doing
all the things in this post. Changing one's attitude and thinking about how you spend your time is critical."

I wrote back: "Your story is inspirational. So...what do you think was the biggest factor in your weight loss?"

After I read Brenda's common sense story of diet, exercise, and weight-training I asked her if she would be willing to share some of what she has learned over the past three years with all of us.

Brenda is like so many of us--lots of work and family responsibilities--with too little time to do it all--let alone find the time to exercise and prepare healthy meals. But she finally figured out a way to do it--and as they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Brenda's Story

“Well, you are over fifty now,” said the doctor in response to my question about my little infirmities – the stiffness and pain in the morning, the inability to get out of a booth or a car without help, the difficulty in sleeping, the inexorable upward creep of my blood pressure.

“This is all just a part of the aging process.”

That was me two years ago. Fifty one years old. Aware that I was overweight (a size 20 qualifies, doesn’t it?) but not looking in the mirror much.

Exercise meant a hard slog in the dark and rain in a heavy coat and then feeling exhausted for days or maybe a tweaked knee that made it even harder to get up the front stairs.

Dieting meant no fat, or crunchy tasteless microwaved frozen broccoli – these doomed Herculean attempts never lasted long! I made small permanent changes, drinking only non-fat milk and air-popped popcorn.

Did these changes even slow the rate of my weight gain? Hard to say.

I’d started out my twenties at 125 pounds, walking everywhere in an Eastern college town. But then I moved back to Oregon and got a car and a job, and began the standard American life of driving to work, sitting all day, a doughnut mid-morning, fast food at lunch, driving home into the garage and sitting all evening.

By the time I was fifty, I weighed 210, parked in the closest possible parking spaces and sat on a stool to teach because standing for too long made me dizzy. I was depressed. I felt ugly. I felt hopeless. And after that visit to the doctor, I felt old.

But on second thought, I realized that the way I felt was NOT due to aging. I knew active, healthy people who were over fifty! All I had to do was look in the mirror to know what was wrong. And then figure out how to change it.

"The day I decided this wasn’t a do-it-yourself project was an important day for me. I found a trainer who had years of experience working with middle-aged people and a nutrition degree, and started in."

The Road to a New Me

The road to a “new me” turned out to be a five-fold process, and it took me two years – one to make the changes, and one to learn how to maintain them. These are the five points of change that I put into place, pretty much all at once:

1. My attitude. This was the first and most crucial transformation. I had to change the way I felt about myself and how much time and attention I was worth.

2. How I fed myself. I learned that I had been routinely eating so many calories that even if I cut down, I would still gain weight. Different eating habits were necessary to lose fat, but not cause me to go into starvation mode.

3. The amount of physical activity I engaged in every day. Building up to 11,000 steps was an important part of this.

4. I had to get my heart rate into my training range for 20 to 30 minutes or more at a time, for a total of at least an hour a week. (This is also known as “high-intensity,” “cardio,” or “aerobic” exercise and it is on top of, and different from, those 11,000 steps. And now I’m building up toward two hours per week.)

5. Building muscle tissue – important to have the stamina for all that exercise, and it sped up my metabolism so I had a fighting chance of maintaining my new weight and fitness level once I attained it.

Getting Started with Small Steps

Because I was so unfit, I needed to start at a low intensity of exercise.

I did the muscle training, I did the cardio, just with lower weights and at a lower level than I do now.

Having a trainer who was used to working with middle-aged, overweight women was really important!

And I didn’t start with 11,000 steps a day. I started by wearing the pedometer and seeing how many steps I was taking every day. Less than 1,000! Oops. My first goal was to double that. By the time I’d been at it a couple of months, I was logging 10,000 steps a day. After a few months, I had worked up to the basic routine that I’ve stuck with now for two years.

My Weekly Exercise Schedule

1. The Gym Routine: I go to the gym three times a week--in the morning, so I'm sure I do it--and do a classic weights routine.

I warm up for five minutes or so on the elliptical to save my bad knees.

Then do a series of exercises designed to build and maintain muscle in the upper and lower body and core.

I do three dropped sets per muscle group, with two minutes of elliptical in between.

By the time I get to the cardio part of my session, my heart rate has been in my training range for half an hour. I know this because I have my trusty heart rate monitor on!

Then I'm on the elliptical or the treadmill, in the higher end of my heart training range, for twenty or thirty minutes.

2. My iPod Sets the Pace: Along with the heart rate monitor, my other can’t-do-without-it
resource is my iPod. It’s crucial to my cardio session because it sets
the pace. My footfall has to keep in time with George Harrison,
Demolition Man or Chris Thile--and that's fast! When running on the
treadmill, I keep the incline at 2.5% or more because it makes it
easier on my knees.

3. My After the Work-Out Routine: I drink about 50 calories of apple juice or have a little chocolate toffee after working out – a bit of simple sugars to replace glycogen stores. I don’t do drink sports drinks. It’s too easy to replace all the calories I just burned off! I do drink a lot of water and make sure I stretch afterward, especially the calves, quads, the front of my legs and the hip flexors -- boy can they get sore if you walk a lot and don't stretch them!

4. A Rest Day is Non-Negotiable: I take one day off per week. That's my recovery day. Not even active recovery -- I've done a lot of reading about the necessity of rest and recovery to the system. I'm off my feet that day. Well, that's the goal anyway. It's hard to not walk around now! Walking is my recreational activity of choice!

5. Hour-Long Walks: I take an hour-long brisk walk three times a week. My walking buddy and I meet early in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays and burn up four miles. My family likes to get outdoors, so we might go hiking, row on the nearby river, or go for a bike hike on the weekend.

6. Getting My Daily 11,000 Steps In Every Day: For daily activity, I always put my pedometer on when I get dressed and I make sure that I get those 11,000 steps in every day. After the morning walk or work out, I probably have about 5,000 under my belt, and then I supplement with a lunchtime walk and a walk after dinner.

I don’t use labor saving devices – my can opener is a hand crank. I would get up to change the channels manually except that watching TV went out the window somewhere in this whole process!

Managing That Ever Present "Food Thing"

The food thing was hard.

My trainer tested my body composition and I learned that not only was 50% of me made up of fat tissue, my lean body mass would only burn 1800 calories a day.

To lose fat, therefore, I needed to take in no more than 1350 and 1750 calories a day.

I learned about lean meat subs with no mayo or oil--and adding extra vegetables.

I learned that broth-based soups are my friend and that I really do like plain Greek yogurt with fruit and that eating that handful of nuts or bag of chips blows the whole budget for the day.

I learned how to cook vegetables and make salads that were delicious--NOT chewy microwaved broccoli--and that air-popped popcorn and herb tea is a fine evening snack.

And I learned that this wasn’t going to be a temporary fix. This is a new way of "eating for life". And that’s SO true!

The New Me

Two years later, I bumped into Mary at the grocery store.

We had taught in the same school for years, but I hadn’t seen her in awhile.

“Mary!” She looked right through me.

“Mary, hi! Salem! First grade!” Now she looked scared.

“Brenda! Third grade!” She’s backing away. All of a sudden the light dawned.

“Oh my gosh!” She almost shouted. “YOU’RE Brenda!” She stopped and looked me up and down. “What happened? You look so young!"

“I didn’t even recognize you!"

What a difference two years can make.

My life has changed profoundly. Not only am I happy and healthy, but I’m confident that these are permanent changes in my attitude and lifestyle.

When you are happy and healthy, you tend to attract and be attracted by healthy activities and people.

Yes, it takes time and attention, but once you make the commitment to these changes and take the actions necessary to bring the change about, your life will open up in many unexpected ways.

This change is probably one of my proudest accomplishments. I really believe that if I could do this, anybody can!

Brenda Stevens lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She is presently writing a book with her trainer, James Dubberly, on how to transform your life through exercise and nutrition. You can find more of Brenda’s writing on her essay blog: Tearing Up the Pea Patch .

Comments

Well done to this lady!

I would second her comments about strength training. I always had problems with losing and then maintaining weight. Even though I did masses of cardio, I still seemed to be fighting a heavy battle with the pounds.

Of course, it wasn't helped by all the rubbish that I used to throw down my gullet! When I think now of what I used to eat :-(

The key to overcoming these issues for me was the discovery of strength training and eating more healthily. I'm not sure that it has been shown that strength training does raise metabolism, but my personal experience is that it really helps with weight control.

Added to that the great benefits in terms of everyday function and I'm only sorry I didn't realise this years earlier.

I'm happy for Brenda, but to brag on your "lifestyle changes" and "huge weight loss" is problematical after such a short time. It took her two years to lose weight and shape up, and while there are no dates, I assume she reached her goal weight maybe in the last year or so. Until you have KEPT THE WEIGHT OFF for five years - and in her case, during menopausal changes -- it won't mean that much.

There are countless stories (including on the abominable show "America's Biggest Loser") of people losing huge amounts of weight, even for a year or two or three, but if you follow up, you find that 97% of all obese people who lose weight, end up gaining the weight back -- and more.

In Brenda's case I note several red flags. She does not mention a husband or children (teens): having to cook for a hungry adult man, or teenagers and have their types of food in the house can be a huge trial for a middle-aged woman with a smaller body and lower metabolism. Even if you have the willpower of a saint, it is very difficult to avoid eating situations if "everyone else" is having pizza or hamburgers or barbeque and you are stuck with "the chewy broccoli".

Eating 1300 calories a day is commendable in the sense of real discipline and commitment, BUT it also represents NEAR starvation by the standards of the World Health Organization. (Poor third worlders who have 1300 calories a day are pitied; fat white women who starve on 1300 calories a day are APPLAUDED...but it's still starvation.) Starvation or semi-starvation are hard to maintain unless you are anorexic. They lead often to binging, and the regaining of massive amounts of weight very quickly, which is worse for your health than moderate obesity. What happens when Brenda can't stand living on such a meager semi-starvation diet any more?

And lastly: at 53, Brenda might have been just entering peri-menopause...or in full menopause. I don't know. It might be too personal to ask. But it is relevant! Menopause totally changes your metabolism and the way your body deposits fat. A diet that works before menopause may be totally ineffective AFTER menopause.

There is some erroneous information here as well: a small bag of potato chips has 150 calories and should not "blow" anyone's diet. Normal diets (like Weight Watchers) have an allowance of 150 calories a day for "treats".

And in conclusion: because this worked for THIS ONE INDIVIDUAL LADY does not mean much for the 200 million overweight/obese Americans who are all different ages, ethnicity, race, DNA, family background, gender, height, build and so forth. Most of us have been on hundreds of diets in our lives; most of us are still overweight. My own personal conclusion is that DIETING DOES NOT WORK for permanent weight loss...neither does exercise (proven now by multiple scientific research studies). Exercise is a good thing for cardiac fitness and strength and flexibility but it does not cause permanent weight loss.

Once again, I am happy for Brenda. But one story does not extrapolate how hundreds of millions of people can lose weight permanently.

I'm sorry that you didn't appreciate Brenda's story, and discounted her success as "temporary". It was only a short summary of her history and what she has figured out that has worked best for her. I tried to email an "offline" reply to you, but it came back as no such address.

Just to be clear-the word "Diet" in that post meant what one eats--not a calorie-reducing diet. Brenda is all about a life-long non-diet eating plan, that allows for indulgences.

Perhaps you would appreciate reading the summary of Dr. Sharon Alger-Mayer's lecture that does an excellent job of explaining all the difficulties of losing weight mid-life.

My thanks to “Concerned Citizen” for pointing out information that I left out in my post.

It took me one year to make the changes in my daily diet, exercise and activity regimen, and gain the muscle and lose the fat that changed my metabolism and pants/dress sizes. I have maintained my “new normal” way of life for two years. I went through the last year of peri-menopause during the first two years of the process and have been post-menopausal for a year.
My caloric window of 1350-1550 calories a day was based upon what my muscle mass could support when I began the program. This window would vary with each individual, and should be based upon an accurate reading of the individual’s body composition. The 1350 calorie number represented the number of calories below which I should NOT ever go – because it would put me into famine mode. I averaged about 1500 calories a day, plus doing the interval training, getting my steps in and doing weight training three times a week.

Now that I am maintaining, my new muscle mass allows me to eat in a window of 1550 – 1850 calories a day. I do weight training just twice a week and my interval training is pretty much riding my bicycle to do errands. I take a brisk hour’s walk every day with a friend, so my steps have actually gone up to about 1400 – 1600 a day, just because I enjoy it. At this point, this is a way of life that I can’t imagine changing, because I feel so good when I am active and eating well and I feel yucky and get sick more easily when I don’t.

I live with my 17-year-old son, my 27-year old daughter (who is a dancer) and my 6 foot 3 inch husband. They eat what I eat, usually oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, a lot of hearty soups for lunch and often for dinner, a lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and some lean protein. When we eat this way, sometimes I find I have to have a snack in the evening because I didn’t get enough calories that day! (And a 150-calorie bag of potato chips represents 10% of my daily calories – so no, I don’t eat potato chips a lot. Besides, it’s the one thing that I don’t have control over – I can’t just eat 150 calories worth. 700 calories worth, maybe!) We don’t eat a lot of pizza or burgers anymore – we find that we get stomach aches when we eat high fat food and it just doesn’t taste that good anymore. None of us are overweight, we enjoy what we eat and we hardly ever get sick.

I would like to say that my trainer has trained dozens of women in this program – anyone who joins his gym, as a matter of fact, agrees to the nutrition and exercise program as part of the gym membership. Everybody who follows this program has seen improvement.

I agree with Concerned Citizen that diets – that you “go on” and then “go off” do not work. But making a permanent change in what you eat and in your activity level DOES work.